Leading Inquiry-Based Learning with groups of Toddlers: A part of Kindergarten teacher’s Professional Praxis’

Pedagogical leadership is a multifaceted and unclear concept within Early Childhood Education and Care, especially when it comes to its connections to children’s learning (Mordal, 2014) and what it can entail in practice. An evaluation of Norwegian kindergarten teacher education concluded that students should be better prepared for the leadership of children (NOKUT, 2010). The significance of this study is new knowledge about kindergarten teaches pedagogical leadership praxis’ of and with groups of children. This paper presentation addresses the following problem formulation: How can the leadership praxis’ of kindergarten teachers, during inquiry-based learning processes with groups of toddlers, function as a bridge between pedagogical theory and practice? Most Norwegian kindergarten teachers work closely with children as middle leaders in kindergartens, from the formal leadership positions as Pedagogical Leaders. The Framework Plan for Kindergartens (2017, p. 16) states that “The pedagogical leader oversees the process of planning, implementing, documenting, assessing and developing the work taking place amongst the group of children”. Many contributions to and definitions of pedagogical leadership exist. Some emphasize that it is about leading the pedagogical work within the kindergartens’ core tasks, where pedagogical leadership is the work towards children’s formative development through play, care and learning (Gotvassli, 2013). This understanding of the term is what this presentation draws upon, researching how three pedagogical leaders bridge pedagogical theory and practice in and through their inquiry-based teaching (Pedaste et al., 2015) and pedagogical leadership. Additionally, it draws upon theories about collective (Fairhurst, Jackson, Foldy & Ospina, 2020), relational (Clarke, 2018), distributed (Heikka, 2014), and practice (Carroll, Levy & Richmond, 2008) based approaches to leadership. Qualitative data of naturally occurring everyday interaction between groups of 1-3-year-old children and their teachers (Knoblauch, Schnettler, Raab & Soeffner, 2012) has been collected through a visual (Pink, 2006) and focused (Knoblauch, 2012) micro-ethnographic study. Video observation has been an important method. A handheld camera was used, and during some activities, a GoPro HERO5 was mounted on the kindergarten teacher’s chest. For the analysis of video data, a hybridization of comic strips with transcripts (Laurier, 2014) provided a visualization of the embodied, material and relational actions of the different participants. The audiovisual data also formed the basis for video-stimulated recall interviews (Calderhead, 1981) with the kindergarten teachers about their praxis. A consent form and an information sheet were provided to all research participants, and ethical considerations have been made continuously. Through examples from videos and interview transcripts, I explore some of the ways in which kindergarten teachers exercise pedagogical leadership during inquiry-based learning with groups of children. Preliminary findings from the ongoing analysis of the data suggest that the kindergarten teachers’ embodied, material and relational leadership praxis’ during the inquiry-based activities can function as a bridge between theory and practice. This takes place as the teachers lead the toddler group’s relations, processes and focus (practice) in directions that comply with pedagogical goals and values, pedagogical knowledge and sound professional judgement (theory).